Life & Pensions – Most Improved: Emphasis on service boosts Old Mutual

Old Mutual Wealth bosses said the value the provider has placed on the service it gives to brokers has renewed its focus and led to it snagging the prize for the most improved life and pensions company.

Amid all this, the business is in the middle of a managed separation, which UK distribution boss Scott Goodsir said it is constantly in communication with advisers about.

The demand for pension transfers also means the company has dealt with an unprecedented amount of business this year.

In turn, the company is helping advisers to understand how to deal with pension transfer requests.

Mr Goodsir said: “A big issue is trying to have the capacity to understand the volume of regulation that is coming from the regulator. Advisers are asking: how can they relate that to their business, and that’s where we come in.”

The growing advice gap is one of the big issues the industry is dealing with - one which has driven some of the work Old Mutual Wealth has been doing.

Mr Goodsir said: “We now have an advice gap. You have these millennials who are trying to get mortgages and pay high rents, but where do you get the extra cash to save? Where do you get an adviser to facilitate that?”

The business has a service centre in Southampton with about 300 people speaking to advisers and customers on a daily basis.

Old Mutual Wealth plans to expand the centre and it also wants to do more in the protection space.